[matt carr]

RAIV-Z pm sent

[drew1967]

ED,

IN YOUR MIDDLE PICTURE. the area im having trouble with is the front where it slants forward toward the drip rail. i cant find where the 1/4 ends and the roof begins with the drip rail.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Hello Drew:

In order to keep my post on track please start your own post and include pictures.

Thanks

Steve

[67'7F6'Bird]

Let the welding begin!!!!!

My brother and I took a welding course last Friday and have been helping a friend over the past few weeks assemble/weld a 1967 F-body together. Now were back on track with more experience to get mine completed.

Here we are welding the rear inner valance panel, zinc primer was sprayed on the rear frame and butterfly pieces on the back shown in the second picture. We are plug welding all the panels together. I picked up a Roper Whitney Punch to help speed things along.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Here are the Trunk Drop Offs being welded on. We did place the wheel wells on once again for fitting, it never hurts to double check alignment. Most of the welds needed no grinding. I will scruff the welds today and get some paint on them, normally it is preferred to do this sooner, it just got too late to do it last night.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Final assembly completed for Trunk Drop-offs and Rear Inner Valance Panel.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Here is the drivers side NOS Wheel Well being fitted, clamped and welded on. The plug welds are getting better as we fine tune the welder for amps and wire speed. The amps were on the highest setting "D" and wire speed around 6/7 to get these welds.

The next MIG Welder we get will have the infinitely adjustable amperage.

[67'7F6'Bird]

More pictures of the drivers side wheel well - welding completed.

[67'7F6'Bird]

I wanted to let you all know the prep work done before the outer wheel wells got welded on.

1) Both Rocker Panels were vaccuum'ed out - My brother came up with the hose attachement and it worked out well.

2) All areas surrounding the wheel well in the rocker area were rust encapsulated and then sprayed with chssis black. I did paint about 6 inches inside the rocker too - we did pick up a long extension for our spray gun and will at a later date spray just about all the inside of the rocker panels with similar coatings.

3) The back of the wheel well lip got sprayed with weld through primer - we like the galvanized spray better but we ran out today.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Here are final assembly pictures of the passenger side wheel well.

All panels have been repainted wherever the paint was burned off by the plug welds; wire brushed or 3m Wheel used to clean the welds then picklex to clean the metal and rust encapsulator used for primer/sealer for the first 2 coats to match the rest of the body panels.

[fastwayfirebird400]

I just want to say you guys have done one he!! of a good job on that car ! Please share more on your spray wand and vacume you used in the rockers (how you made it) I need to do mine very soon and need to coat the inside of the rockers.. Thanks for sharing...

[67'7F6'Bird]

fastwayfirebird400: Thanks for the compliments!!!! There Motivating!!!

Here is the "3M Spray Gun" we'll be using to coat the inside of the rocker panels. As for the Vacuum to clean them out we used the step down attachment and just slipped into it about 8 feet of garden hose.

[67'7F6'Bird]

I finally got a chance to cut the roof off. I used a sawzall, air saw and right angel grinder to get it done. I used a torch to remove the lead on the front pillars.

There was plenty of surface rust and some very thin metal on the back window lip. The only time consuming part was grinding the roof off in the drip rail area - took about an hour to cut it off. I am glad the roof came off after seeing all the areas were there was rust, it will make me happy knowing its going to be all new metal up there. There was a wrinkle in the original roof and that helped in deciding to just start cutting.

I will be changing the roof braces too.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Here are the areas you can't too unless the roof is off. You can see the surface rust, but normally the bad spots are around the drip rail area and front/rear windows.

[67'7F6'Bird]

I was able to remove the rust with the wire wheel then a quick one over witht the 3M sanding wheel. More sanding the paint hopefully over the weekend.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Here is the sanded area on the roof bracing and front pillar that I spayed with "weld through primer." I used my new Roper Whitney Hand Punch" for the plug weld Holes.
Before I welded each piece on I had the upper winshield brace secured tightly to make sure everything was aligned properly.

[67'7F6'Bird]

More Pictures!

[67'7F6'Bird]

Here is the Windshield Roof brace lined up - To be welded tomorrow.

[67'7F6'Bird]

The windshield/roof support brace is welded on, plenty of plug welds on these pieces so far. I dressed the welds, then wiped clean with picklex and painted with Rust encapsulator.

I removed the middle roof support brace and prepped each side and painted with weld through primer - the last 2 photos.

[67'7F6'Bird]

I got the midlle roof brace welded in today. I ran out of weld through primer and tried SEM's NEW "copper-weld" through primer, after trying this stuff I will say its the best stuff I've used to date minimal popping and nice clean welds. I punched holes in the rear roof brace and lined it up. So far its been an easy task.